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Rogers Says Defense Must Deliver

With all the heat Coach Jim Zorn has faced for the team's lack of scoring on offense, the Redskins' defense also has been a major disappointment through the first three games.

"No doubt," cornerback Carlos Rogers said. "With the guys we had last year, and we brought in more guys to better our defense, and it's a disappointment just for everybody. It starts individually and you work around, and everybody just has to step up."

Despite the addition of defensive tackle Albert Haynesworth, the drafting of Brian Orakpo and the re-signing of DeAngelo Hall, Washington has struggled to produce on defense. London Fletcher leads the league in tackles with 43; he had 18 against the Giants, nine against the Rams and 16 against the Lions, but, as he pointed out after the Giants game, a high number isn't necessarily a good thing for him.

As for the defense overall, the Redskins rank 15th in the NFL on total defense (giving up an average of 325.7 yards per game).

Zorn completely trusts defensive coordinator Greg Blache and does not intend to become more involved in devising the defensive game plan each week.

"Greg and I have spoken and we have been on the same page the whole time," Zorn said. "We've had some good conversations."

Said Rogers: "We just need to have a swagger, or identity, about ourselves. It's kind of like we're just stiff out there."

What they don't need is a swagger, its discipline. Seriously... they need to make tackles and not take bad reads on the ball. The defense has been good over the previous years when it was hard working and people played their assignments and swarmed the ball. Swagger isn't going to help that.

It's almost 3 weeks later some of us are still crawling around on the floor looking for our jaws after seeing 3 DBs whiff on Manningham when he caught a pass from Manning and motored 35 yds for a TD in the 1st half of the Giants game.

This is regarding running left. Gibbs liked the left side also but I do remember the middle runs. "40/50 Gut". We were good at that from 2004-2007. What happen? Do we still have that play? I remember Portis asking Gibbs to run the "40/50 Gut".

stop barking, start biting... time to wear normal colored shoes and think about the game, not your image... swagger, if you want swagger buy some god aweful smelling old spice, just play like you care for a change.

"What's ultimately wrong with the Redskins, the reason they annually fight to be merely average, is not the fault of Jim Zorn, Jason Campbell or any other employee, it's the fault of Snyder. Anyone who doubts his involvement needed only listen to Zorn on Monday following the Redskins' loss to the winless Detroit Lions. "I'm sure I'll be spending a lot time with him this week," Zorn said. Now, surely Zorn has better things to do than to explain the elementary and the obvious to his owner: They don't have an effective offensive line or a pass rush."

Jenkins is always negative. I stop reading her writings. She must have applied for a job with the SKINS and was turned down. Plus she lives in NY. I live in NY and a lot of the sports writers here are always down on the SKINS an Dan S. Gary Myers of the NY Daily News has never ever written anything good about the SKINS or Dan S.
My advise would be to ignore the bore..avoid the noid..Stay positive it's early

to use the old parcell metaphor- snyder bought the ingredients- the cooks have to cook with them... now if his little dog vinny would stop writing the grocery list... maybe then the meal would be more palatable.

Greg Blache's discipline oriented scheme breaks down when players don't do their jobs. When players freelance - like Haynesworth and D. Hall - it all starts to unravel. Guys need to be able to trust that the player next to them is going to make that read, make that tackle, fill that gap. I believe in Blache's scheme. It has been too successful for me not to. I love Blache as a coach, but he has let the fans down with his not holding players accountable. If Haynesworth strays from his assignment, he needs to ride the pine until he has learned his lesson. It's a little tougher with the defensive backs since Blache could be hurting himself by putting Smoot in instead of Hall, but painful or not, he needs to make him learn. By not resolving the lack of discipline, Blache is giving the green light for younger players to do the same thing. He's got to squash this stuff right away. As I have pointed out before, Blache has nothing to lose by benching Haynesworth or Hall. If the owner says "play them", blache can just say "we'll do it my way or I'll retire today". I don't think Snyder wants that, no matter how much he paid for Haynesworth.

Yeah, agree with those who say that Carlos and company need to dial back the swagger a bit and just do their jobs and play on like professionals they are paid to be.

Nothing makes a player look more foolish than when they make a routine play and get up and start gesturing and dancing around like its the first time they've ever done it. And that's even more so when they then get beat like a red-headed stepchild on the next play.

A more workmanlike, "been there-done that" attitude would go much far with this collection of individuals.

Also noted: "It starts individually and you work around, and everybody just has to step up."

this whole medium thing is still making me angry... medium... bland, predictable, not to hot, not cold... no emotion, no passion. I think that is why the fans are so upset, we shell out loads of money to support these guys and this orginization and we get paid back with Mr. Medium and his band of oh well no need to panic i'll still get my paycheck heartless wonders. Medium sucks

Just wait until Sally gets her stern rebuke of cold weather into print.

Is that on open letter to Dan to think smarter, or does she want him to sell the team too?

These are the cards we have right now; a coach I'm not sure about, a QB I'm not sure about, a defense that relies on absolute discipline with a couple of primadonnas that are killing them, and an offense that will need to buy a couple of vowels to reach 'inept'.

On the good side, they have a record equal to their model (the Steelers), but with a much tougher division schedule.

If Haynesworth strays from his assignment, he needs to ride the pine until he has learned his lesson

Blache could be hurting himself by putting Smoot in instead of Hall,
Posted by: RedSkinHead

Haynesworth has been doing a good job in there. We had 2 sacks last week and he had one. despite being doubled. Now the offside penalty hurt and he has done that quite often but his play has been on point. Maybe they can fine him for those bone head penalties but to bench him would be just stupid. I know you might say fines don't mean a thing to a guy with 100 mil. But if he's all about the money the way a lot of people think then a fine would hurt more than you might thimk.

As for Hall. He can be benched ASAP. There's no way Smoot can do worse in coverage. In fact Smoot may do better. He has more heart and more passions about the skins than Hall. Hall thinks because he says thing like "guys need to step up". "Guys think they have arrived" that he's a good corner. He's getting beat, give too much room and scared to tackle. Smoot has and will always come up to tackle..remember he played with a broken Chest bone and tackled. Hall is overrated and until he does better he'll always be overrated.

So I was on the extreme site last night, and while I take that site with a grain of salt, someone had posted some 'before', 'during', and 'after' shots of the last few plays of the game, basically showing the way the play started off before the ball was snapped, when the ball was in the air, and the final result, these were shots taken at a 45 degree to the field so you could see the entire field.

All I have to say is that JC had every opportunity to win that game...guys, specifically DT, were running wide open down the field, and instead of throwing it to him, he went into double and triple coverage. Like I said I take it with a grain of salt, but given the picture evidence, it was hard not to be disappointed by it. Wish I could post the pictures here...

Jenkins is always negative. I stop reading her writings. She must have applied for a job with the SKINS and was turned down. Plus she lives in NY. I live in NY and a lot of the sports writers here are always down on the SKINS an Dan S. Gary Myers of the NY Daily News has never ever written anything good about the SKINS or Dan S.
My advise would be to ignore the bore..avoid the noid..Stay positive it's early

Posted by: jcnjcnj

JC, We are all too familiar with Sally Jenkins' style, the way she lobs grenades from the comfort of the empire state, especially after a redskins loss. Problem is, her article is spot on.
She is not saying anything that we hamsters, the hometown media, or some ex-redskins haven't already said.
So for that, I don't blame her for piling on, even if its a day late, it helps the cause.

All I have to say is that JC had every opportunity to win that game...guys, specifically DT, were running wide open down the field, and instead of throwing it to him, he went into double and triple coverage. Like I said I take it with a grain of salt, but given the picture evidence, it was hard not to be disappointed by it. Wish I could post the pictures here...

Posted by: BeantownGreg1 | October 1, 2009 8:14 AM | Report abuse

Bean,

I noticed that JC17 talks alot about "playing smart" and "being smart" in his comments.

I translate that to mean: "I lock in on Santana or Cooley because I trust them and they are proven guys in the league, and if they aren't open I check it down."

A smart guy would just learn how to find the open guy.

Anyways, this is not going to work out for JC17.

His success in this offense was sort of predicated on him being the "game manager" not needing him to win games for us. We were going to lean on our D for TOs and short-field situations and a power-run game to carry the load.

Our D looks bad and our power run game has vanished.

Under those circumstances, this is now a job for the likes of Peyton Manning, not Jason Campbell.

It's not simply swagger for swagger's sake -- it's being thought of as a dangerous defense by our opponents during game planning.
The feeling I get is that other teams are figuring that, with our offensive struggles, you'll get a good number of chances, and if you don't do anything stupid, you can probably make the 1-5 decent plays to get enough points to win.

It seems funny to me how the offense has played poorly for the last nine games, but the defense has played poorly for three games and everyone says the wheels have fallen off the defense, the defense is the big problem. The defense will come together. They played a decent (not spectacular) second half against the Lions and they are getting ready to go up against a Tampa Bay team with virtually no offensive weapons.

The offense and defense together need to put points on the board for the Redskins. If they can score three touchdowns each game, they can win most of the games in their schedule. I say it starts with Tampa. Tampa has been giving up a lot on defense and generating very little on offense. There will not be an easier game in the schedule. This is a game where the team can make tinker with both offensive and defensive game plans without the fear of it blowing up in their faces. This is the perfect time to right the ship. If they walk out of Tampa looking as bad as they have, then this season is over.

All I have to say is that JC had every opportunity to win that game...guys, specifically DT, were running wide open down the field, and instead of throwing it to him, he went into double and triple coverage. Like I said I take it with a grain of salt, but given the picture evidence, it was hard not to be disappointed by it. Wish I could post the pictures here...

Posted by: BeantownGreg1 | October 1, 2009 8:14 AM | Report abuse

More evidence of Campbell locking into Moss / Cooley no matter what...

And the thing is it's HER responsibility to say that. We make it an issue amongst ourselves, but be real - nobody making decisions is listening to us. And the player simply can't say these things. For one thing that's the guy signing their checks. More importantly, to criticize the owner for not building the team correctly is to admit that some players simply aren't good enough. Nobody wants that talk to start going on in the locker room, it's destructive.

So that leaves only the Media in the position to identify the problem and make noise about it. So I'm glad she's speaking out about it, and I hope other journalists repeat her sentiment over and over and over.

So that leaves only the Media in the position to identify the problem and make noise about it. So I'm glad she's speaking out about it, and I hope other journalists repeat her sentiment over and over and over.

Posted by: REXskins | October 1, 2009 8:23 AM | Report abuse

The problem is that NO ONE really respects jenkins. She can say all this till she'd blue in the face - true or untrue. It's not gonna dent Dan Snyder at all.

The things that will dent Dan Snyder are:

1) When he starts feeling the heat on his profit margin.

2) When enough "yes-men" that he's insulated himself with start growing a pair and find the gumption to say "no".

I'm not kidding, DT beat his man off the line on one play, to the point that the cb/guy covering him, started pointing at DT to get someone/the safety to give over the top help...if you can check it out, the frame by frame picture evidence is really really hard to dismiss.....I just don't get it....and again, to confirm, I'm not saying that JC is the problem, but he can be THE SOLUTION, he needs to learn to trust these other guys, he needs to start throwing the ball to them....

good leaders surround themselves with good people (that doesn't mean nice people)bad leaders don't. Vinny isn't good at his job, therfore Snyder isn't good at his. to quote Coach Green "They are who we thought that are" and that is just clueless when it comes to building a football team.

and on a different note, if the defense ever wants to have this real swagger eveyone is talking about they will have ot start dictating to the offence instead of doing this read and react crap. Sometimes called bend but don't break... well don't bend and you will never break.

All I have to say is that JC had every opportunity to win that game...guys, specifically DT, were running wide open down the field, and instead of throwing it to him, he went into double and triple coverage. Like I said I take it with a grain of salt, but given the picture evidence, it was hard not to be disappointed by it. Wish I could post the pictures here...

Posted by: BeantownGreg1 | October 1, 2009 8:14 AM | Report abuse

BG I saw those pictures as well and I would agree that Campbell picked the less open guy. The one in particular when DT was open but Campbell threw to ARE, I remember DT kind of looking back at JC indicating that he should have gotten the ball. The first picture when he threw to MK who was doubled, that play was similar to many of the their deep shots, Campbell got pressured heavily. Still it telling to me the the open receiver on that play was DT as well. Is this an indication that Campbell isn't looking at DT? Maybe it's not all on the young WRs.

Jenkins is always negative. I stop reading her writings. She must have applied for a job with the SKINS and was turned down. Plus she lives in NY. I live in NY and a lot of the sports writers here are always down on the SKINS an Dan S. Gary Myers of the NY Daily News has never ever written anything good about the SKINS or Dan S.
My advise would be to ignore the bore..avoid the noid..Stay positive it's early

Posted by: jcnjcnj | October 1, 2009 7:39 AM | Report abuse

Please!! When has there EVER been anything positive to write about Snyder, and as for the Skins, all one needs to do is look at the product on the field. This team is only good for fertilizer, and will remain as such until Snyder pulls his head out of the sand (wanted to say someplace else) and gets an intelligent football person for GM.

'm not kidding, DT beat his man off the line on one play, to the point that the cb/guy covering him, started pointing at DT to get someone/the safety to give over the top help...if you can check it out, the frame by frame picture evidence is really really hard to dismiss.....I just don't get it....and again, to confirm, I'm not saying that JC is the problem, but he can be THE SOLUTION, he needs to learn to trust these other guys, he needs to start throwing the ball to them....

Posted by: BeantownGreg1 | October 1, 2009 8:30 AM

If memory serves me correctly, on this play JC got a heavy rush. He looked like he was going to bail and run, but at the last second he threw it to MK. If I'm correct, this play sickens me more because as mentioned DT was wide open; yet the inability of the team to execute the play resulted in a blown opportunity. I must say, from those pictures, DT was wide open. Let's get these young WRs the ball, it's time.

twis, yeah, those are almost hard to look at...I mean, not throwing to DT when he's open is troubling, but to throw it to a guy who is double or triple covered and in the middle of the field, versus DT who was along the sidelines, makes the first decision exponentially worse.....its really frustrating...

Did JC have good protection on that DT play you are talking about? Maybe the dude really just can't read the field. It's not out of the realm of possibility.

I hate Jenkins writing usually but she is spot on. Snyder is the constant of the past 10 years. He should be taking a heavy portion of the blame. We think this team has some talent but I am starting to think outside of a handful of players we really don't.

Blache Sucks. He plays it safe way too much and thats why we are good defense on paper, last year anyway, but dont create turnovers or get sacks. Get after the damn ball!! We need turnovers and defensive points because we suck on offense. we can't afford to play it safe. Safe is gonna have Blache out the door with Zorn when this nightmare ends.

I went back and watched that game over again. JC DID NOT have enough time consistently. Heyer was getting beat regularly. Once again, it seems premature to start crushing JC without also acknowledging another glaring weakness we have yet to address.

scott, your right. Much like Snyder, Blache will continue doing the same thing with new pieces and expect better results. He can get booted right now for all I care. Gray couldn't do worse as d coordinator.

All I have to say is that JC had every opportunity to win that game...guys, specifically DT, were running wide open down the field, and instead of throwing it to him, he went into double and triple coverage. Like I said I take it with a grain of salt, but given the picture evidence, it was hard not to be disappointed by it. Wish I could post the pictures here...

Posted by: BeantownGreg1 |

I think JC has played pretty darn well. Our D has kinda....sucked.

And I much as I love CP, he should have scored a TD on the 1 yard line. I've seen that play over and over again this week and he should have absolutely scored a TD there.

I presonally think Blache wants his ticket out, NOW I am not saying he is doing it on purpose, but wasnt there any article that he was going to retire, before Zorn was hired? His defense does seem to relaxed, no intensity and soft. I also seem to think that alot of the third down issues stem from the LB's not being able to cover very well.

Greg, can you post the link for the pics of JC latest missed opening? You have to wonder about all the talk about the young WR when he is missing them, but I will say...I think MK12 goes up for the ball very awkwardly.

Blache is doing the same thing his mentor was doing. It's textbook, like playing prevent D: If the "O" doesn't score, open the umbrella and protect in a shell.

Unfortunately, like mis-executed or mis-timed prevent D, the shell also is easily exploited - especially when you don't have top cover guys in position who trust each other and know what they're going to do.

It's easy to point at the D, but really how much can you expect from them if there are no points on the board?

Funny how M. Stafford, Bulger and Manning could find their WR with our guys in their face?!?

If Stephon Heyer is getting crushed in every game, how come we have not looked at anyone else to bring in, especially if we have cap room. I really dont think we need Alridge, Mason, Rock, Betts and Portis for RB depth.

I hate to say it, but it was pointed out over the summer, maybe they dont build on the OL, cuz they dont want JC to succeed...would seem crazy to me, but Snyder is Snyder.

I also seem to think that alot of the third down issues stem from the LB's not being able to cover very well.

Posted by: mhartz1
===========================

I think you're on to something there, and I think that having Orakpo as LB for a lot of plays makes it so that his fill-in on third downs isn't really familiar with the receivers. A lot can be said for getting in the flow, and whoever is replacing him at LB on third downs is not in the flow.

How are the Jets beating quality teams with a rookie QB and we're still trying to focus on the details? Enough is enough with this team, stop talking and play like you want to win. Swagger my arse...you need to go out there and hit somebody in the mouth and keep hittin' em until they give up. Swagger is earned. Hail you slackers.

I went back and watched that game over again. JC DID NOT have enough time consistently. Heyer was getting beat regularly. Once again, it seems premature to start crushing JC without also acknowledging another glaring weakness we have yet to address.

Posted by: pgugino | October 1, 2009 9:27 AM | Report abuse

I'm ready for BMW. He can whiff a block as easy as Heyer but BMW can actually run block. If you're not getting any pass protection from the right tackle posistion anyway you might as well get some run blocking.

JC will start passing to DT. Keep in mind this is the first game in which DT has actually gotten off the line and ran accurate routes. They'll see that on the game film. I'd look for him to start seeing more passes coming his way.

Here is the link to the pictures BG has been referring to. Again it's still photos, and I think re-watching the game keeping in mind the time checks would serve to better add clarity, but these pictures show how open DT was on these plays.

Sometimes, you need to grab a players attention. (See Samurai Mike on his first game with V. DAVIS) DS needs to let JZ take a few players that "don't want it" and trade them away, let them go, show their a$$ the door, don't let it hit ya where the good Lord split ya. trade even good players for whatever you can get (even 6-7th rounders) Vinnie seems to do better with this round anyway. Get some HUNGRY players. get us about 10 15 picks in the later rounds to got get those "slighted" hungry players

for those of u that don't like the CR22 "swagger" comment i must apologize. for whatever reason swagger or swag is the new buzzword amongst my young black bros. it's replaced confidence or self assuredness or attitude. i agree with los that they need to play with an edge and carry themselves with an edge. if ur out there playin worried the other guys are gonna eat u alive.
it sounds like the defensive players want to be aggresive, but blache has them all neutered. did haynesworth become a pro bowl d tackle in blache's discipline based system or did he become great becasue he "wreaks havoc". i think more of what blache does has to be based on the talented players they have on defense.

How are the Jets beating quality teams with a rookie QB and we're still trying to focus on the details? Enough is enough with this team, stop talking and play like you want to win. Swagger my arse...you need to go out there and hit somebody in the mouth and keep hittin' em until they give up. Swagger is earned. Hail you slackers.

Posted by: Smiley2 | October 1, 2009 9:51 AM | Report abuse

The Jets are exactly what we should be. They have a strong defense, good running game, and pass when they need to. Their defense forces the other team off of the field and their run game chews up the clock. Sanchez hasn't even broke 300 yards in a game yet. They are scoring points because their defense is setting them up with good field position and a lot more oppurtunities.

You can try to blame our offense for not being better but our offense is performing at their expectation. The defense has had 4 of our last 5 first round draft picks and almost a quarter billion dollars invested in it in the last 5 years. They should be one of the best defenses in the league. Our defense needs to be better.

The Jets are exactly what we should be. They have a strong defense, good running game, and pass when they need to. Their defense forces the other team off of the field and their run game chews up the clock. Sanchez hasn't even broke 300 yards in a game yet. They are scoring points because their defense is setting them up with good field position and a lot more oppurtunities.

You can try to blame our offense for not being better but our offense is performing at their expectation. The defense has had 4 of our last 5 first round draft picks and almost a quarter billion dollars invested in it in the last 5 years. They should be one of the best defenses in the league. Our defense needs to be better.

Hey its Brian Mitchell. I know you fans have lots of questions about the Skins! Why don't you let me give you the scoop, AND answer your questions??? Tomorrow, Friday Oct, 2, 2009 at 12noon (est. time) please dial 712-432-8220 show ID 5154 and share your thoughts. The call is FREE!! Start by emailing your questions at bmitch@comvl.com. I look forward to talking with you then.

I watching the WNBA game between Indy and the Phoenx and the crawl across the bottom of the screen goes Jerry Jones announces that his running back probably will be out for the next game.

And I'm saying, Damn, where did Dan Snyder go. These Fans and Pundits have punked him way back in the background and he never says nothing about his Team.

Not one mumbling word. Is that how we really want Dan Snyder to run this Team? I don't think so.

He made his mistakes starting out, and he listened to everybody saying he don't nothing about football, and he needs to let the real football folks handle the Team, and Yada, yada, yada.

Well I am here to tell yawl that Dan Snyder needs to speak up about his Team. Is he running this Team in absentia or something, or what?

He needs to be up front and proactive and maybe this Team might have the guts to step up and be SOMEBODY!!!

RIGHT NOW, THE REDSKINS ARE PLAYING FOR A OWNER THAT MAKES NO PUBLIC ANNOUCEMENTS OR ANY OPINIONS ABOUT HIS TEAM THAT HE PAID 800 MILLIONS DOLLARS TO OWN AND RUN. IS IT ANY WONDER WE DON'T HAVE AN IDENTITY?

COME ON DAN SNYDER, SHOW SOME GUTS IN PUBLIC AND MAYBE YOUR TEAM WILL ON SUNDAYS. STOP LISTENING TO THESE FANS THAT SAY YOU DON'T HAVE A SAY IN THIS ORGANIZATION, BECAUSE THEY THINK YOU DON'T KNOW HOW TO RUN THIS FOOTBALL TEAM.